My Story:
I am a researcher, advocate, equestrian mindset coach, writer, and riding instructor. My passion is connecting people to communities and to their personal strengths to inspire transformation, purpose, and hope. I often use horses for guidance in this process, but also meet clients virtually to help them shift away from fear into power through a variety of science-backed coaching modalities.
I am a certified EquineFlow coach, an NFEC financial educator, and an ARIA certified riding instructor..
I grew up in Greenville, South Carolina where I studied creative writing at the Fine Arts Center and South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. I graduated from Travelers Rest High School and I wish I had known how much some time spent in FFA would have taught me how to drive a tractor.
An alumnus of Wofford College and Young Arts, my background in business development and community growth inspires me to help clients find ways to spark entrepreneurship, navigate the challenges of life change, grow their financial literacy, and remove the stigma of struggle in order to alchemize their shadows into gold.
My work is not just for adults. I have worked with pre-teens and teens throughout my career to help them find tools for empowerment and emotional strength as they navigate the transitions of an uncertain world.
I am the founder of the BRIM method of riding instruction and owner of Bramblewood Stables in Taylors, SC, a multi-purpose equestrian facility where clients come to explore, grow, and thrive. From the barn to the board room, I bring an organic understanding of relationships and problem solving to every aspect of my work.
In 2022 my coaching program partnered with the Medical University of South Carolina so that Integrative Medicine students could explore where people search outside of medicine to feel better. I am also proud to work with referrals that reach me from our greater community including: RIZE Prevention, The South Carolina Continuum of Care, Strides Upstate, Thrive Upstate, and The Department of Social Services.
How Did I Get Here?
Fate.
Two decades ago, my career path was flourishing in journalism and the arts. I thought I was doing everything right until panic disorder left me virtually housebound. Horses became my salvation. Since childhood, farms had embraced me during tough trials and I discovered there was so much more to horses than simply riding. As neuroscience develops, we are learning more and more about why nature helps us move past old habits and develop new neural pathways so that we do not have to be caught in the prison of our fears. The science-backed tools of the EquineFlow method can be experienced in-person, at the farm, or accessed through virtual sessions by phone or online.
My coaching practice is a way for you to unlock the mysteries of the horse as they stand in quiet witness to your journey while exploring what herd dynamics can show you about human anxieties, dilemmas and inertia.
Horses are patient and willing partners who stand in grounded witness to our personal growth. Coupled with the EquineFlow method, our horses allow life coaching clients to explore their freedom of choice, interactions with others and options that might not be apparent without time invested personal development.
Moving from fear to transformation is within your grasp.
A Place of Healing.
I grew up riding and showing in the traditional hunter/jumper world in upstate South Carolina. Horses were always my safe place, barns my salvation, through a hard childhood. I wrote stories focused on these barns from a young age and had great early success as a writer. I attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and the Fine Arts Center in Greenville and won numerous poetry prizes, including the coveted Young Arts award. I attended Wofford College on a full scholarship where I studied English and Art History, completing a novella and continuing to publish. I graduated with honors and quickly built a career as a journalist covering the arts and food in SC while also working for an upstate gallery and The Greenville Museum. My career path set, I thought I was doing everything right until panic disorder left me virtually housebound.
Horses, again, became my salvation. I took a year off to write a book and began cleaning stalls for a large Quarter Horse operation. The hours in the barn quickly led to the purchase of a young horse named Max who pushed me to move past the prison of my fears into a sense of my own power and transformation. Twenty years later, Max is still doing the same work for me and many others who come to Bramblewood Stables, to explore the pull that brings us to healing with horses.
Life coaching is a natural extension of the work Bramblewood does daily. Small, private sessions draw on the beauty of the natural wold surrounding the stables and give clients a safe place to delve deep, manifest goals, and draw on their strengths to create a balanced way of being.
